The lab · your case in stages
Seven stages. Not one of them a surprise.
Each job runs down a single visible route, from the first phone call through to a return you sign off yourself — the route we would want for a drive of our own. Here is that route in full, and the two points where the choice belongs to you alone.
Speak to an engineer about it
0800 6890668
Stage by stage, in order.
Get in touch
Ring us or send the quote form, telling us how it failed and which files you cannot lose. Before anything moves you get a candid first opinion and plain instructions.
Send it in
Post it to our secure intake lab on a tracked, insured service, with your printed shipping form enclosed — or ring first and we will agree another route for anything awkward.
Logged in, checked at no cost Free
On arrival it is booked in under its own case reference and examined properly: what has broken, the realistic chances, and what a recovery would involve.
The call is yours
A single price, set down in writing. Say yes and work begins; say no and the device travels home with our findings. The diagnosis costs nothing either way.
Doing the work
An image is taken first, without fail; fault-specific work then follows — donor parts, firmware, decryption, rebuilds — all of it on that copy, never the original.
Check the file list
Nothing is paid until you sign off a full list of what came back, matched against the folders you flagged.
Getting it back to you
Files come back on fresh media, return postage paid by us, and after thirty days our working copies are destroyed. You close the case, not us.
How long the bench really takes.
| Type of case | The work | Usual turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Logical damage — erased files, formatting, corruption | File-system work carried out on an image | 2–3 working days |
| Mechanical failure — clicking, dropped or dead units | Donor parts fitted, then slow imaging | 3–5 working days |
| Arrays — RAID 5, NAS boxes, servers | Each disk copied, array rebuilt in software | 3–4 working days |
| Encryption and forensic cases | Assessed one by one, with timings settled beforehand | Priced individually |
| Real emergencies | Stopped businesses and deadlines get unbroken priority | Tell us when you ring |
What should go in the parcel.
Questions people ask first, answered plainly.
Will I hear how it's going while you work?
Yes. We make contact as each stage above ends, and in between you can ring the lab yourself. No login portals, no tickets vanishing into a queue.
And if the data can't be recovered?
On most jobs the failed attempt costs you nothing — no fix, no fee — and you will get a straight answer on whether another lab stands a better chance, even when that answer is nobody.
Whose hands is my device actually in?
Our own engineers in our own lab. Nothing gets passed to a third party or sent overseas, and your device carries its case reference from arrival through to return.
What do you do with the copies you hold?
We hold the working images for thirty days once your data has gone back — a safety net should anything need checking again — and then destroy them securely.
Start whenever you like.
Pick up the phone or send the form. Stage one is free of charge and ties you to nothing.